India falling!

A shooting incident in which two Taiwanese were injured, a collapsed over bridge just outside the main venue Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and falling of tiles from the false ceiling at the weightlifting venue and heavy criticism of the Games Village are only few hiccups before the start of a big event according to the officials of the Common Wealth Games (CWG) in India. But no doubt its’ a nightmare to all those who are associated with the games, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was pitched in to settle the issue with the international sporting fraternity to save the face of the country.

Speaking in Parliament and later, to reporters, Sports Minister M S Gill had compared the Games to a typical Indian wedding — where there is chaos right until the groom arrives, but where things always work out well in the end. But the minister should understand it’s not a fairy tale where the princess at the end will meet her prince charming always! As a minister representing 125crore people should have responded to the situation with more maturity. You cannot tell the world things will happen “only” like this in India (It only happens in India!!). That too, when we are competing with the western world and trying to attract investments from them.

How long India likes to be dubbed as third world country? India is among few countries that can independently build and launch satellites in to orbit, it is one of the biggest retail markets in the world, and India is stated to be adding 8 to 9 million mobile users every year as compared to 6 to 7 million users by China and 2 to 3millions in the US. Thought it dragged a place down to 3rd in the foreign direct investment confidence index, which it was holding from 2005, India is still an attractive nation for investments.

However, the incidents that occurred recently will send negative signals about India. How much you may you have developed, you still remain as a third world country. Whom to be blamed for the current fiasco? If games face any fresh disaster blaming game undoubtedly continues for a long time. However, the situation could have been handled much wisely, if we have responded to the situation timely.

In today’s digital world one cannot think about sporting events without drawing media, TV cameras, satellite broadcasts, internet blogs and of course lots of advertising. Recent sports events such as FIFA world cup in South Africa, 2008 Olympics in China are examples of how sports turned into business, with several millions of dollars in stake.

The recent Olympics in China represented a privileged opportunity to diffuse the culture and to project a desired new identity for that country. Many campaigns earlier associated with major sports events, designed to present the countries as fun and attractive and to call attention to other cultural aspects that go beyond the game itself. In such events media coverage becomes a success measure of the event.

In current situation, India was awarded the games in 2003 yet there are unfinished venues, falling bridges and roofs have become major embarrassment to the country. Added to the problems are epidemic break and terrorism. Earlier, in 2004 Olympics Athens had problems in building stadium in time, Vancouver winter Olympics faced major challenges like lack of snow, scrapping of standing areas and several other problems. But before media calls the games “worst games ever”, the organisers responded quickly and avoided any embarrassment.

In India’s case instead of protecting the pride of the nation, authorities dismissed the problems as routine crisis. As a result, few athletes withdrew from the games. Countries detoured before coming to India. "A lot of damage has been done to India as a country," the Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell admitted.

On the first chance the western world started bashing India for its poor show. National media is not lagging behind. Instead of stopping the bash-up organisers callous approach to the crisis has added fuel to the fire. They failed to create the right euphoria before such mega event. Thus, India's status as a growing economic and political power is in jeopardy. India may have to make a fresh start to regain the confidence of investor world.